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The first phase of the extension of the metropolitan area subway connects Ruoholahti, Helsinki and Matinkylä, Espoo. Upon completion, in late 2017, the West Metro will service over 100,000 passengers every day.

The building is located in a transformational environment where the surrounding area’s industrial sites are being converted to residential use. Because Vantaa Energy’s site faces streets on three sides, any buildings on the site are highly visible from many different directions.

The first phase of the western extension of the Helsinki metropolitan area subway line, the West Metro – in use since November 18, 2017 – connects Ruoholahti, Helsinki to Matinkylä, Espoo. The West Metro will service over 170,000 passengers per day. The objective that has been set for the architecture of the eight new stations along the first, and the five new stations along the second phase of the extension is to create distinctive, location-specific identities for them on both urban and interior scale. At the same time the metro will act as a link between the various urban centers of the City of Espoo and in a way create its new backbone.

Dipoli, the listed iconic and experimental student union building of Helsinki University of Technology designed by Raili and Reima Pietilä and completed in 1966 has gone through a complete renovation and gotten a new life as the main building of Aalto University. The building reopened for fall semester 2017.

Helsinki-based Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects have been given the green light to begin construction on a new facility which will bring all the offices of the City’s urban environment divisions under one roof. The new office complex will take a new approach to how Helsinki’s city planners, housing specialists and environmental designers tackle issues within the Finnish capital, replacing traditional work spaces with an activity-based work environment. The 41,000m2 new building will have its ground floor almost entirely open to the public, with customer service points, exhibition spaces and a restaurant. At the same time, the design of the rest of the building, primarily offices, puts a heavy emphasis on casual encounters between employees of different departments. Construction is due to begin in December 2017.

Showroom design, interior design and lighting event for professionals is organized second time in Helsinki Fair Centre 13.–15.9.2017. The event is collaboration between Helsinki Design Week and Habitare, the biggest interior design fair in Finland. We were asked to design exhibition architecture but we found the task very challenging as we always start from the site. The vast empty exhibition hall didn’t provide us with any starting points. We started thinking what the fair is all about. As all the information can be found in internet, what is the point of this kind of events? We concluded that the main point is the contact between exhibitors and visitors. This is why we focused on interaction between people instead of designing fancy physical exhibition structures.

A pyramidal roof culminating in a fully glazed nature observatory defines this wooden house built on a square footprint.

The owner of a beautiful plot stuck between a mountain forest and a lake in Finland wanted a house with a distinctive character that would offer the comfort of a contemporary lifestyle and, at the same time, establish a tight connection with the strong and beautiful natural features of the site.

A solution was found in a wooden building designed around a pure geometric shape, balancing clean contemporary lines, traditional materials and complex spatial solutions.

UPM, the world’s second biggest forest company, leads the integration of bio and forest industries into an innovation-driven, resource-efficient future.

The main spatial element of the interior is the atrium, which allows for communication and gives the building an integral part of its identity. Adjacent to the entrance is a high cone-shaped gallery which enables product and art exhibitions and other small-scale events. Conference centre on the ground floor swirls around the atrium – guests are received in the bright café area in the lofty atrium. All workspaces, management included, are open-plan. The layout of the office floors is dynamic and enables impromptu brainstorming and one-on-one meetings for informal testing of new ideas “in statu nascendi”.